Configuring yasnippet and autocomplete to work with C/C++ headers

Question

My computer system and set up are

OS: Arch Linux 64bit
emacs version: 24.4
alias emacs='emacsclient -t -s server --alternate-editor='

---

Update:

auto complete is working with yasnippet occasionally now but not as expected. I changed the line

(add-to-list 'achead:include-directories
       '"/usr/include/c++/4.9.2/")

If I type #include <io and hit tab, I get back #include <#include <iostream>. Therefore, I then tried just typing <io and tab which produces <#include <iostream>. If I type ios and hit type, the desired result is achieved. I then tested this with float.h. No iteration works.

I then tried re-testing io and tab. This doesn't work 100% of the time. 50% of the time I get #include <iostream> and the other 50% nothing happens. Needless to say, I have no idea what is going on with this package or feature.

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I am trying to get auto complete to work with C/C++ headers; however, I have been unable to do so. I executed the following command in the terminal to locate the C/C++ headers:

[dustin@dustin ~]$ g++ -print-prog-name=cc1plus -v
Using built-in specs.
COLLECT_GCC=g++
COLLECT_LTO_WRAPPER=/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.9.2/lto-wrapper
/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.9.2/cc1plus

but using /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.9.2/cc1plus does not produce the desired outcome. I have also ran a search looking for float.h just to determine locations as well and came up with

[dustin@dustin ~]$ sudo find / -name float.h
[sudo] password for dustin: 
/usr/include/c++/4.9.2/tr1/float.h
/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.9.2/include/float.h

So I also tried /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.9.2/include. I am not to sure about /usr/include/c++/4.9.2/tr1 though.

Below is the relevant information in my .emacs. All packages were downloaded and install from melpa are up-to-date. If I run 'emacs' --debug-init, there are no error messages. The ' ' around emacs is so that emacs will open without options for debugging only.

;; Start server and set directory
(setq server-socket-dir (format "/tmp/emacs1000"))

;; Package list M-x package-list-packages
(require 'package)
(add-to-list 'package-archives 
         '("melpa" . "http://melpa.milkbox.net/packages/"))

;; Package initialize
(package-initialize)

;; C/C++ configuration
(require 'cc-mode)

;; auto complete for C/C++
(require 'auto-complete)
;; default config for auto-complete
(require 'auto-complete-config)
(ac-config-default)

;; start yasnippets
(require 'yasnippet)
(yas-global-mode 1)

;; auto complete C++-headers
(defun my:ac-c-header-init ()
  (require 'auto-complete-c-headers)
  (add-to-list 'ac-sources 'ac-source-c-header)
  (add-to-list 'achead:include-directories
               '"/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.9.2/include")
  )

;; call ac-c-headers from c/c++ hooks
(add-hook 'c++-mode-hook 'my:ac-c-header-init)
(add-hook 'c-mode-hook 'my:ac-c-header-init)

Answer 1

You can use hippie-expand and avoid all this key binding conflict headache altogether:

  (global-set-key (kbd "M-/") 'hippie-expand) ;; replace dabbrev-expand
  (setq hippie-expand-try-functions-list
        '(
          ;; Try to expand yasnippet
          yas-hippie-try-expand
          ;; Try to expand word "dynamically", searching the current buffer.
          try-expand-dabbrev
          ;; Try to expand word "dynamically", searching all other buffers.
          try-expand-dabbrev-all-buffers
          ;; Try to expand word "dynamically", searching the kill ring.
          try-expand-dabbrev-from-kill
          ;; Try to complete text as a file name, as many characters as unique.
          try-complete-file-name-partially
          ;; Try to complete text as a file name.
          try-complete-file-name
          ;; Try to expand word before point according to all abbrev tables.
          try-expand-all-abbrevs
          ;; Try to complete the current line to an entire line in the buffer.
          try-expand-list
          ;; Try to complete the current line to an entire line in the buffer.
          try-expand-line
          ;; Try to complete as an Emacs Lisp symbol, as many characters as
          ;; unique.
          try-complete-lisp-symbol-partially
          ;; Try to complete word as an Emacs Lisp symbol.
          try-complete-lisp-symbol))

Now, whenever you want to expand a snippet, press M-/ and want to complete, press <tab>.

Answer 2

I found on SO the following answer that works by abdimuna:

First locate C/C++ headers on your computer by running the following command.

gcc -xc++ -E -v - 

On my ArchLinux they are located here

/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.9.1/../../../../include/c++/4.9.1
 /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.9.1/../../../../include/c++/4.9.1/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
 /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.9.1/../../../../include/c++/4.9.1/backward
 /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.9.1/include
 /usr/local/include
 /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.9.1/include-fixed
 /usr/include

Then the complete C/C++ auto-completion which works for me is this.

;; C++ auto completion mode
(require 'auto-complete)
(require 'auto-complete-config)
(ac-config-default)
;a function which initializes auto-complete-c-headers and get called for c/c++ hooks
(defun my:acc-c-header-init ()
  (require 'auto-complete-c-headers)
  (add-to-list 'ac-sources 'ac-source-c-headers)
  (add-to-list 'achead:include-directories '" /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.9.1/../../../../include/c++/4.9.1
 /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.9.1/../../../../include/c++/4.9.1/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
 /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.9.1/../../../../include/c++/4.9.1/backward
 /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.9.1/include
 /usr/local/include
 /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.9.1/include-fixed
 /usr/include"
     )
  )